I. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to computerized planning systems and methods. More particularly, the invention relates to systems and methods for planning a supply network in a managed supply chain.
II. Background Information
Supply network planning is used to calculate quantities of products to be delivered to destination locations to match customer demand and maintain a desired service level. Within supply network planning, a deployment application is often provided which calculates the quantity of products available to deploy from source locations.
It has been found that supply network planning suffers from several drawbacks. One problem is that conventional deployment applications consider rounding values only in a fair share situation. If there is sufficient available to deploy (ATD) quantity to cover all demands, the system assumes that the supply network planner has already rounded stock transfer quantities. Further, the maximum lot size is not taken into consideration at all. This situation can lead to one or more errors. For example, conventional deployment applications consider manually created supply network planning stock transfer orders without rounding. Further, in some cases, deployment changes the means of transport used by the supply network planning. As a result, the rounding profile also changes and deployment confirms quantities rounded for another, different, means of transport.
A further problem with conventional deployment applications is that it uses the means of transport that is valid on the deployment start date for the entire planning period. This may lead to one or more problems. For example, conventional deployment applications may use a means of transport outside its validity period. Further, conventional deployment applications do not consider supply network planning stock transfers created using a means of transport that is not valid on the start date, but is valid on later dates within the planning period.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to address these and other problems encountered in conventional supply network planning incorporating a deployment.